Africa’s highest ranked football clubs will compete in the exciting new ‘Super’ competition, the Inaugural African Football League (AFL), which is designed to showcase the best of African clubs football and provide football fans in Africa and around the world with the opportunity to see and enjoy the very best of the beautiful game on the continent.
The AFL is a partnership between CAF and Fifa. The inaugural edition of the AFL will feature eight of Africa’s most famous and successful teams from the three African Regional Blocks which are: the North Region, the Central West region, and the South East region.
Egyptian giants Al Ahly Football Club, Tunisia’s Espérance Sportive de Tunis, and Wydad Athletic Club from Morocco are the football clubs from the North region.
The clubs from the Central-West Region are Nigeria’s Enyimba Football Club and the DRC’s Tout Puissant Mazembe.
Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club from South Africa, Angola’s Atlético Petróleos de Luanda, and Tanzania’s Simba Sports Club are the football clubs from the South East region.
The draw for the inaugural AFL competition will be held in Cairo, Egypt, on 2 September 2023, at 19h00, Cairo Time and will be streamed live on the AFL website and televised by Caf’s broadcast partners.
The fixtures of the inaugural AFL competition are structured on a home-and-away basis. The competition starts with knockout quarterfinals and will be followed by the semi-finals and the final, all of which are played over two legs.
This historic inaugural edition of the AFL will take place over four weeks, kicking off with the opening ceremony and the first match on 20 October 2023 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The semi-finals will take place between 29 October and 1 November.
The final matches, which will determine the winner of the Inaugural AFL competition, will take place on 5 and 11 November 2023.
The inaugural AFL is a precursor to the fully-fledged AFL competition, which will feature the 24 highest ranked football clubs on the African continent and commence during the 2024/2025 football season.
The AFL website will also offer live Over-The-Top (“OTT”) access to the draw and all AFL matches as well as supporting feature content to keep fans engaged throughout the entire competition from 3 September 2023 onwards.